Since arriving in Berlin on Wednesday, I have gotten right to work exploring the city. One of the first things that I noticed is the quick, safe, clean, and efficient transportation. It is surprisingly easy to navigate, even for a foreigner, and makes it possible to travel anywhere throughout the city. I will say, I was shocked by the sheer size of Berlin, as it is about a hundred square miles larger than New York City. During our first few days here, Britta took it upon herself to introduce us to the city by showing us some important buildings and monuments. Notably, we were able to see the parliament building with the famous glass dome, and we were lucky enough to see both the current Chancellor and previous Chancellor as they were entering a meeting. I found the dome to be a significant addition to the building, as it symbolizes transparency between the parliament and its people. We were also able to see the famous Brandenburg Gate, which used to divide East and West Berlin, but now stands as a symbol of unity between the two. The city is beautiful, with a rich history that is showcased on every corner. With many indestructible bunkers from the war scattered throughout the city, and pieces of the Berlin wall still standing, it is obvious Berlin holds its history as an integral part of the city until this day. Although I have only been here for a few days, I have already learned so much about this city, its people, and its history, and I look forward to learning more as I begin my internship in a different part of the city.
During my time in Berlin, I will be working in the technology industry. Specifically, I am interning at a company named audEERING, which focuses on researching and developing empathetic Artificial Intelligence. The Artificial Intelligence models they develop hone in on the unique information that can be derived from speech, such as age, respiratory health, emotion, and much more. Their products can and are used in a number of different industries, but I am specifically interested in its application in the healthcare industry. As someone who is pursuing a computational biology major, I am mainly intrigued by the use of computation in biological settings, and so learning about the ways in which Artificial Intelligence can be implemented to solve biological problems such as the early detection of respiratory symptoms and personalized treatment plans is extremely relevant to my field of study. Additionally, the use of Artificial Intelligence is becoming increasingly important in all fields of work, as many different types of generative Artificial Intelligence become available for free, public use. The field is gaining both traction and relevance, and learning how to efficiently utilize Artificial Intelligence as a tool is becoming a skill that more employers are looking for.
Some key strengths and skills necessary to be successful in this field include general collaboration and communication skills, as well as problem-solving, adaptability, and critical thinking. In the workplace, especially at the company I am an intern for, there is a large amount of group work and collaboration. As the task of developing Artificial Intelligence models for some specific purpose is quite daunting, the entire job is not assigned to one person, but rather it is divided into a number of different tasks which are then delegated to members of the team. For this reason, it is important to stay up to date on all the work and progress of fellow team members as they run into problems or begin to find success as all the unique tasks are interconnected. Therefore, a change in status of one project inherently translates to adjustments in other projects. Additionally, because the development of Artificial Intelligence requires a lot of programming, it is important to be a problem solver and utilize critical thinking, as it is more often than not that one runs into issues of program errors and needs to be able to patiently debug code rather than concede to feelings of frustration. Some competencies that are necessary to be successful in this industry that may not be specific to my host country, but are specific to my company, are proficiency in python and coding in the terminal. Both of these things are skills which I have exposure to in my academic classes, although this exposure is limited. For this reason, I am going to have to work extra hard to get myself up to speed so I can carry out my responsibilities to the best of my ability.
